Iran seeks new oil export route

TEHRAN (UPI) – Iran is reportedly planning to build a new export terminal on the Sea of Oman at Jask, bypassing the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the only way in and out of the Persian Gulf.

The narrow, 112-mile waterway is a vital oil artery, particularly to Asia, that Tehran has threatened to close if the United States and European powers step up the sanctions. That's due to happen June 28, when new U.S. sanctions take effect, to be followed by an EU boycott of Iranian oil exports July 1.

The Mehr news agency reported that the new infrastructure will be built by the state-owned Iranian Oil Terminals Co.

Most of Iran's exports are funneled through the big terminal on Kharg Island in the northern Persian Gulf, then shipped southward in supertankers through the U-shaped strait.

IOTC Managing Director Pirouz Mousavi says the company plans to lay a 1 million barrel-a-day pipeline running the length of Iran from the Caspian Sea in the north, where substantial oil strikes were made recently, to Jask.

The Iranians have provided no details on when the terminal and the pipelines will be completed, or what the new terminal's capacity will be.

It's not clear whether another pipeline will be built to pump oil from Iran's main oil-producing zone in Khuzestan province several hundred miles north of Jask that normally go through Kharg.

What is clear is that it will probably take at least two years to build that kind of infrastructure from scratch.